Short-Term Scientific Missions (STSM)

Short-Term
Scientific Missions (STSM) contribute to the scientific objectives of a
COST Action and are aimed at strengthening the existing networks by
allowing scientists to go to an institution or laboratory in another
COST Country to foster collaboration, to learn a new technique or to
take measurements using instruments and/or methods not available in
their own institution/laboratory. They are particularly intended for
young scientists.

Procedures for applying
for STSMs within the COST
program:
Integrated Management of Phytoplasma Epidemics in Different
Crop Systems (FA0807).

Applicants must apply using the COST STSM application website
http://www.cost.esf.org/stsm
and must then email copies of their application to the prospective host
of the STSM and also to myself as this Actions STSM chair at
matthew.dickinson@nottingham.ac.uk.
In addition, the applicants must
email copies of supporting documentation including their full cv, list
of publications, motivation letter, detailed workplan and letter of
support from the home institute to
matthew.dickinson@nottingham.ac.uk, and the prospective host must
send an email confirmation that they agree to host the applicant to
matthew.dickinson@nottingham.ac.uk.

Applicants can apply atany time
during
the year. All the applications
will be assessed by
the ‘STSM subgroup’ to determine which ones will be supported. The
successful applicants will be informed within 1 month, and unsuccessful
applicants will be informed at the same time and
will then be given the opportunity to resubmit later. That way, we will be able to spread the number of
STSMs that we support throughout the duration of the programme and
hopefully make sure all the best ones will eventually get funded even if
they all get submitted at the same time. For administrative reasons, it
is requested that visits are completed and reports submitted by 30th
November in any particular year, so that payments can be made within
that budget year.

Please note that you must allow at least 2 months between the
application deadline and the time of your proposed visit, to allow 1
month for a decision to be made by the STSM Subgroup and a further month
that the COST centre at Brussels require once we have approved a
submission. Please also note when making your budget request that the
financial support is a contribution to the costs of the STSM and may not
necessarily cover all the costs in each case. The grant should normally
only cover travel and subsistence. The normal level of re-imbursement
that should be applied for is up to 300 Euros for travel, and 60 Euros
per day for subsistence with a cap on the total award of 1500 Euros.
Requests can be made for budgets
above this amount but you will need to provide an additional
justification in your application explaining why the additional money is
required and what it will be used for. We would also encourage
applicants to explore additional sources of funding to help supplement
their STSM costs.

The ‘STSM subgroup’ will consist of Bojan Duduk, Saskia Hogenhout,
Phyllis Weintraub and Wolfgang Jarausch (as representative executive
committee members for each of the 4 WGs), Assunta Bertaccini, Mogens
Nicolaisen and Matt Dickinson. As far as possible, we will try to
allocate awards evenly between the 4 WGs, but the number supported in
each round will depend a little bit on how much money each STSM has
asked for.

According to the COST contract and the Memorandum of Understanding, we
are obliged to fund at least one STSM per year per WG, and we also
stated that 'preference would be given to young scientists and
scientists from less developed regions to facilitate technology transfer
and share protocols and new techniques', so these will be our guiding
principles in deciding which ones to support.